Budget Debate
Brooks Newmark raises his concerns about what happens if the Chancellor's predicted growth does not occur.
Mr. Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con): The implication, if I understand what my hon. Friend is saying, is that there will once again be a hole in the Government's budget. If growth is not V-shaped, then the tax revenues that the Government have assumed will be collected will not magically appear. Does my hon. Friend share those concerns?
Stephen Hammond: My hon. Friend, as ever, gets to the point that I wanted to make rather more quickly and more eloquently than I did. I am making exactly that point. These statistics and these forecasts do matter, because they matter for people. When they are proved to be wrong, the hole in the public finances will be even bigger, the debt mounting on people will be even bigger and the tax receipts that will have to be raised in the future will be even bigger.
